The FaunsThe Fauns, a species of demi-gods, inhabiting the forests
were called also Sylvani. They
were sons of Faunus and Fauna, or Fatua, king and queen of
the Latins, and though accounted demi-gods, were supposed to
die after a long life. Arnobius, indeed, has shown that
their father, or chief, lived only
one hundred and twenty years. The
Fauns were Roman deities, unknown to the Greeks.

The Roman Faunus was the same with the Greek Pan; and as in
the poets we find frequent mention of Fauns, and Pans, or
Panes, in the plural number, most probable the Fauns were
the same with the Pans, and all descended from one
progenitor.

The Romans called them Fauni and Ficarii. The denomination
Ficarii was not derived from the Latin ficus a fig, as some
have imagined, but from ficus, fici, a sort of fleshy tumor
or excrescence growing on the eyelids and other parts of the
body, which the Fauns were represented as having. They were
called Fauni, a fando, from speaking, because they were wont
to speak and converse with men; an instance of which is
given in the voice that was heard from the wood, in the
battle between the Romans and Etrurians for the restoration
of the Tarquins, and which encouraged the Romans to fight.
We are told that the Fauni were husbandmen, the Fauns
vine-dressers, and the Sylvani those who cut down wood in
the forests.

They were represented with horns on their heads, pointed
ears, and crowned with branches of the pine, which was a
tree sacred to them, whilst their lower extremities
resembled those of a goat.

Horace makes Faunus the guardian and protector of men of
wit, and Virgil, a god of oracles and predictions. Faunus is described by Ovid
with horns on his head, and crowned with the pine tree.